Peter Chambers: Maurice Fulton has been at it for quite a while, producing everything between trancey techno, house, dub-disco, electro pop, and jazztronic. What’s so striking though, aside from the effortless versatility of his productions and the musicianship and acute ear he brings to everything his touches, is how much he manages to excavate polished and personal sounding gems from tired genres. Like Hans-Peter Lindstrom, Fulton has a knack for generating space in his recordings. His instrumental versions add to the groove by subtracting clutter, following George Clinton’s edict that “funk is what you don’t play.” This recent EP with Kathy Diamond sends him to the sparkling dub end of space disco, armed with slap bass, fruity keys and mad-isms. Like recent remix work for Hot Chip and !!!, this EP has got a sense of ease to it, and grooves along, propelled by a self-assured succession of reverbed claps, skittering bongos, and wiggling synths. The B-side gets you an instrumental version, which stands equal scrutiny with the vocal cut. Kathy or no Kathy, this is one of the biz’ most talented people, doing their best work.

Nick Sylvester: I first heard this on Tim Sweeney’s Beats In Space program a few weeks ago actually. Reminds me of Chaka Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody” though this night does actually last forever, if that makes sense: excessive slapbass, conga accents of the “afro-electro-disco-funk” variety, the heavily FX’d Wurlitzer rhythms, “I came, I saw, I conquered your heart,” etc. Plus Diamond, who is Sheffield-from but London-in at the moment, has legitimate pipes, none of the whispery quote-naïve girlfriend-of-producer stuff that OK yeah I’ve come to like a lot too. Either way, this is a Maurice Fulton production, which means the bass kicks are taut, and the snare clacks and handclaps combine on the twos and fours just a millisecond out of sync. I’m not sure how much longer it’ll be before that multitracked vocal harmony breakdown goes from cheesy-irresistible to merely cheesy, but let’s be fair: not all Rufus breakdowns aged well either.

Permanent Vacation / PERMVAC 005-1
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